Mourinho against the referees: before Maresca …

“Udinese are a smart team, they also have experience to influence refereeing”. Josè Mourinho had said it on the eve, during the conference, and it was a sentence passed somewhat in silence because many, starting from the transfer market, had been the concepts expressed by the Giallorossi coach. Yesterday, after the bad defeat in Udine, Mou is back on. He admitted, first of all, that “when you lose 4-0 there is no need to talk about the referee, we did not lose because of him ”but then, when he addressed the subject, also because he was pressed, he defined Maresca“ an artist. When we learned that he was directing it, we already knew what was expected. He was a perfect referee for a team like Udinese. The players knew it ”.

ACCOUNT OPEN

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It is not the first time that Mourinho, in his career, talks about the referee directors, it will certainly not be the last (in this sense Europe, Spain, Portugal, England and Italy, for him, make no difference), but with Maresca he has an account open from last season. In November 2021, in fact, during a Roma – Milan, the Campania referee, one of those who warn the most, gave Milan a penalty for Ibanez’s foul on Ibra (very generous even according to the referees) and did not grant one. for a clear foul by Kjaer on Pellegrini. At the end of the game Mou said: “I shut up, otherwise they disqualify me, but respect was lacking”. Throughout last season the Portuguese coach often pointed out the directions that he did not like, to put it mildly, he was expelled in the recovery of Rome – Verona for having made the telephone gesture to the referee Pairetto with whom he had already complained afterwards. a match against Bologna at the end of which he even provocatively advised Zaniolo to go and play abroad given the treatment he suffered in Italy.

FROM HANDCUFFS TO THE BASKET OF CLOTHES

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Nothing, of course, compared to when in 2010 he took three rounds of disqualification for having made the gesture of the handcuffs while he was at the helm of Inter, or when at Chelsea, at the end of a draw against Southampton he said: “Here is a clear campaign against us, I do not know orchestrated by whom and why. But everyone, from the coaches to the players, tries to systematically influence the referees to put pressure on them and make them make decisions against my team. It’s been going on for a long time, I can’t believe it’s just a coincidence. I will go to the race director to wish him a Happy New Year but I will also tell him to be ashamed ”. He was always at Chelsea, but in the Champions League, when he accused then Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard of having entered referee Frisk’s dressing room. He was disqualified, but since he needed to talk to his boys about him he locked himself in the basket of dirty laundry to be able to get in touch with them. And nobody noticed. On the other hand, Josè Mourinho is this: take it or leave it. It will not be the “artistic” direction of Maresca to make him change. And the Roma fans are fine with that.